A friend of mine recently gave me a wild turkey fan. The bad news is that when I went to get a feather off it, the bugs had beat me to it. The good news is that I had kept it away from my other supplies. When I first got it I put it in the freezer for a few days, because someone told me to. It obviously didn’t help. Is there a way to clean the bugs out of the fan and salvage the feathers left, or am I better off to toss it.
Thanks
John
Realisticly - better off to chuck it, BUT - get some of those bug away boxes, you can hang in a closet - they have a plastic like bar inside - i’ve seen it in yellow, that supposedly kills both bugs and eggs. take it out of the box, and throw in a large plastic ziploc bag with the fan, away from everything else, leave for 2 weeks, inspect and repeat if needed…BTW the freezer method works, but has to be subzero (not the brand, but the temp)…
Good luck
Ulrik
This topic comes up on a regular basis. Get some moth balls that contain Paradichlorobenzine as the active ingrediant. Now to the procedure.
Wash the feathers in a solution of soapy water that has a handfull or two of borax added to it. I use Dawn but most any grease cutting detergant will work. The borax is important because it will kill bugs and help preserve the skin.
Hang to dry. When almost dry, finish with a blow dryer.
Store the dry feathers in a large pladtic bag with a few of the above mentioned moth balls.
The end result of all of this, NO BUGS.
I have been using this method since the mid sixties and have never had a problem with bugs.
Good luck with the extermination project.
fishbum
I have been using dog flea and tick collars cut up in pieces in my fly tying storage area since last year. It gives me a little sense of prevention. If I knew that bugs were already there, into the fire it would go because I have enough invested in feathers that I would not want to risk anything.
Like you, I do the freezer route as well. Good to know that the freeze alone is no assurance in itself.
FishBum’s hands now have a nice tanned leather supple feel to them. 
Only teasing.
Once found an old microwave at a garage sale and used it to scorch the eggs and bugs. Works well but too long will burn up skins and feathers. So there is a fine line there. Plus the microwaves probably are worse for me than the other chemicals.
yeser, better off put it in file 13… when i get new feathers, fur or other tying materials heres how i do it… i put them in the freezer fer 2 weeks after a washing & drying of the materials… afterwards the materials get sepperated and then put in a freezer bag or zip lock bag along with a few mothballs & a peice of flea collar then sealed up… never had a problem whatsoever doing it that way… also i keep mothballs & peices of flea collar in the drawers that my materials are stored in just to be safe… the freezer method alone dont work fer all bugs or mites that get into & eat tying materials… some just go dormant untill they thaw back out so follow up with the mothballs & flea collar…
Tried to give Al Campell’s article link on this and can’t…drives me nuts and this sort of thing happens often now:mad:
It is amazing to me that folks think the freezer works… How would those bugs have survived in the wild? Say here in AK around Tok where they had a little cold snap earlier this winter and it was very close to -80F ambient. I guarantee they have beetle eggs there that make it through winter.
I have seen bugs pop up alive in materials that had been stored in an unheated shed through a winter.
Like the old Monsanto commercials used to say “Without chemicals, Life itself would be impossible!”
art
People might poke holes in this but…I had a pheasant skin a few years back that I discovered some bug eggs all over. I cleaned out what I could see by hand. I then chucked it in the microwave (1.6 kw) for 20 sec. The bugs haven’t come back. That was two years ago. I have been doing this to most bird skins I buy. The skin might tighten up but I have seen no ill effect on the feathers.
I zap them in the microwave for a few seconds. I also keep materials that are bad quality and good quality seperate. The microwave kills all living things, but may damage or weaken materials. To prevent bugs, I use borax and cloves.
It’s funny, on another thread, I just wrote that you should never throw any bits of fly tying stuff away! BUT . . . bugs are another story! They may get into your ‘other’ stuff and compound your problem. Throw stuff with bugs away! Call Russ and ask him about the time he hung a turkey fan over his bed and woke up with bugs falling on him!
Ron
Thanks guys,
As always on this site, you always get great responses. I think what I’ll try is the washing and scrubbing trick. Get them dried out. Nuke 'em. Then put them in the zip lock. I’ll keep them separate from my other supplies for a while to make sure they are ok. If they aren’t I’ll toss them, they didn’t cost me anything.
I’m curious about the moth balls. All I know about them is that they have a real foul odor that I would rather not have on my feathers. I know some guys that are always washing their hand to keep any scent off their bugs, adding that terrible moth ball scent seems contradictory. Maybe I’m missing something.
Thanks again
John
Any washing w/ soap will kill any adult bugs. Bugs breath thru small pores on their skin and the soap fills these pores and the bugs sufocate. Just make sure you add soap to the water. The eggs will come thru the wash. That’s where the moth balls and flea collars come in. Enclose the material in an enclosed bag for several weeks in warmer temps so that the eggs will hatch and that should kill the newly hatched bugs. It has to be warm temps because the eggs will not hatch at cold temps.
Beaver
I’ve got to agree with Clay on this one. I’ve been using Flea Collars for seven or eight years now and have had absolutely no trouble with bugs. I’ve avoided Al Campbell’s No Pest Strips because I think they are just too toxic for this type of use. I don’t trust the freeze route at all and don’t even waste my time with it. Good luck with your bugs. I’ve had several incidents before the flea collars and they were no fun. 8T
The only thing I use the freezer for is keeping skins from going bad until I have lime to tend to them. My wife HATES it when she finds a fresh bucktail in a bloody ziplock in the freezer!
Kirk
By the way, since we’re on the topic of bugs, one of the major manufacturers of feathers recommends that in addition to bagging your feathers, a “Bounce” fabric softener sheet will keep the bugs away.
Ron